NameCaptain Joseph DAVIS 453
Birth Date17583310
Death Date23 Apr 1779
Death PlaceLaurel Run, Luzerne Co., PA, USA
Death MemoNear the Summit of Wilkes-Barre Mountain, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Burial Date29 Jul 1779
Burial PlaceOld Wilkes-Barre Burying Ground, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Burial Date24 Jul 1867175
Burial PlaceHollenback Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne Co., PA, USA
Cause of DeathKilled in Action during an Indian ambush
FatherBenjamin DAVIS Sr. (1718-1778)
MotherRachel BARTHOLOMEW (1721-1791)
Misc. Notes
Captain Joseph Davis who was slain at Laurel Run [Luzerne county, PA] April 23, 1779, was a citizen of Philadelphia county, afterwards Montgomery county, Pa.

He was first an officer of Colonel Samuel J. Atlee’s Pennsylvania Musketry battalion, in which he was commissioned Ensign March 27, 1776. He was promoted First Lieutenant in the Ninth Pennsylvania regiment

August, 1[7]76. He was also attached to Col. John Patton’s Additional Continental regiment during this year, as he was reported by the Controller General of Pennsylvania as in "Patton’s regiment," and as entitled to donation land for his service, but as "killed in action."

Dr. Egle states that "it is uncertain whether he did not belong to Patton’s, as he was his brother-in-law." His name, wherever it occurs, has "Hartley’s regiment" to it, but that may be because he was killed after Patton’s was consolidated into Hartley’s.

Davis was transferred to Hartle’s Additional regiment January J 5&gt [sic] 1777, promoted Captain June 5, 1778, and transferred to the New Eleventh Pennsylvania regiment December 16, 1778, and killed at Laurel Run April 23, 1779.

He was a brother of Capt. Benjamin Davis, of Montgomery county, Pa.
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A Narrative Describing the Circumstances Leading to The Murder of Captain Joseph Davis:

Major Prowell and his command arrived at Bear Creek, some twelve miles from Fort Wyoming, in the evening of April 22d, and there they encamped for the night. Early the next morning Major Prowell, believing that they were now out of danger from a surprise by Indians, ordered his officers and men to burnish their arms and furbish up their uniforms and accouterments so as to present as fine an appearance as possible upon their arrival at Wilkes-Barre. With drums and fifes playing the column then advanced.

Having passed the deserted house of Nathan Bullock, three miles from Bear Creek, and crossed the Moosic, or Wyoming, Mountain ... the head of the column arrived at the point where the " Lower Road " crossed Laurel Run—sixty-one and three-fourths miles from Easton, and six miles (by the road, but only three miles in a beeline) from Fort Wyoming. There the vanguard reported that they had seen several deer browsing but a few minutes before; whereupon, by permission of Major Prowell, Capt. Joseph Davis, Lieut. William Jones, Corporal Butler and four privates, all armed with rifles, crossed the "Run" and hurried forward along the path.

They had gone but a short distance, and were nearing the crest of Wilkes-Barre" Mountain, when they were fired upon by a band of Indians (believed to have numbered about twenty) in ambush, and every one of them* was either instantly slain or mortally wounded. The savages rushed from their covert, secured the scalps of their victims, and disappeared in the thick woods before a single man of the main body of troops could be hurried up to the spot. Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, Surgeon of the 2d New Jersey Regiment (which took part in the Sullivan Expedition), wrote in his journal, at Wilkes-Barre, June 25, 1779, relative to this event: " What renders the action peculiarly inhuman was that the scalps were all taken off by a squaw, consort to a sachem; and at that, of some while they were alive."

Major Prowell, fearing that he had a large force of savages to cope with, halted his men and prepared for an attack. In the meantime he despatched to Colonel Butler the Surgeon of the detachment (who had volunteered for the duty) and John Halstead (a private of Captain Spalding's company, who had met the detachment en route, and was acting as guide), bearing information as to the situation of affairs on the mountain.

Colonel Butler immediately called out the German Regiment and ordered it to march to the relief of Major Prowell and his men and escort them to Fort Wyoming. This duty was done without delay; but, first, the remains of the seven slain soldiers were decently buried alongside the path where they had fallen. Over the grave of Captain Davis there was set up a piece of a board, bearing these words, written with a piece of charred wood: "The place where Capt. Davis was murdered by the Savages April 23d 1779." At the grave of Lieutenant Jones there was also placed a board, which was smeared with his blood and had inscribed upon it, "The blood of Lt. Jones."

*Lieut. John Jenkins states in his journal that "Captain Davis, Lieutenant Jones, and three men were killed, and two others were missing." The other diarists of the expedition have recorded that the two officers named and five men were killed and scalped. 3311

More on the specific location where Captain Davis was killed:

At sixty miles the road passed through a notch, or gorge, in what the surveyors called "Moosic Mountain" (now known as Wyoming Mountain, as explained on page 44, Vol. I); and at sixty-one and three-quarters miles Laurel Run—along the right bank of which the road ran for a mile or more—was crossed, at a point where the creek turned towards the north-east, to continue its course along the south-eastern base of Wilkes-Barre" Mountain. On this mountain (called by the surveyors " Susquehanna Mountain ") the sixty-second and sixty-third mile-posts were set—the former on the south-eastern slope of the mountain (not far from where Captain Davis and Lieutenant Jones and their companions had been massacred), and the latter on the north-western slope of the mountain, a full quarter of a mile west by south from the bold, jutting ledge known since that day as Prospect Rock.... The engineers followed pretty closely the old bridle-path, known as the •' Lower Road," up to a point a short distance beyond where it crossed Laurel Run, and near where Captain Davis and Lieutenant Jones had been murdered. 3312

Footnotes to the narrative on the killing of Captain Davis:

Joseph Davis, undoubtedly a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was appointed Ensign of Capt. Abraham Marshall's company, in Col. Samuel J. Atlee's "Musketry Battalion," March 27, 1776. This battalion was embodied strictly for the defense of Pennsylvania, under a resolution of the Provincial Assembly passed March 5, 1776.

Early in the following August, however, the battalion was ordered over to New York, where it was made a part of the brigade commanded by Lord Stirling, and later took part in the battle of Long Island—in which engagement Colonel Atlee was captured by the enemy, and was held a prisoner for nearly two years.

Some time in the latter part of 1776 Ensign Davis was promoted First Lieutenant, and, January 15, 1777, was transferred to the 9th Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line, commanded by Col. Tames Irvine. Shortly afterwards, upon the organization of "Hartley's Regiment" (see page 1108), Lieutenant Davis was transferred to that regiment, and Tune 5, 1778, was promoted Captain.

When, in January, 1779, Congress resolved (as noted on page 1108) that "Hartley's Regiment," certain companies of "Patton's Regiment," and several independent Pennsylvania companies annexed to Colonel Malcolm's regiment, should be incorporated together to form the "New 11th Regiment" of Pennsylvania in the Continental Line, Captain Davis became Captain of the 1st, or Colonel's, Company of the new regiment. After Colonel Hartley's resignation in February, 1779, the 1st Company was designated as the "Lieutenant Colonel's Company."

Note: William Jones was a native of Delaware.3313
There’s an extensive biography on William Jones and his service at this source.453
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Joseph Davis, fell at the massacre of Wyoming. His remains are interred under the monument erected to the memory of the martyrs who fell victims of that terrible conflict.451
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Headstone Inscription

Captain Joseph Davis
Lieutenant William Jones

Officers of the Revolution, members of the Sullivan Expedition and brothers in Masonry. Killed by warriors of the Six Nations near the summit of Wilkes-Barre Mountain April 23, 1779.

July 29, 1779 their bodies were removed to the old Wilkes-Barre Burying Ground and there interred with Masonic ceremonies by Lodge No. 19 in Colonel Porter’s Artillery Regoment of Sullivan’s Arrmy.

July 24, 1867 the bodies were re-interred under this shaft by Lodge No. 61 E & A.M.

This memorial erected and dedicated to their memory June 23, 1926 by Lodge No. 61 Free and Accepted Masons.175
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This source incorrectly identifies Joseph as Lieut. Joseph Davis, who lost his life at the massacre of Wyoming. The remains of this matry now rest under the monument erected in honor of all who fell during that historic struggle, in September 1896.845

NOTE: The massacre of Wyoming took place on July 3, 1778 which is inconsistent with the date indicated that Captain Davis was killed.

This list of those killed at Wyoming also does not include the name of Davis.
http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/patk/wyoming.html

From the narrative regarding the murder of Captain Davis in these notes and it’s source it is clear that Davis was NOT killed at the massacre of Wyoming.3
Spouses
Family ID5336
Last Modified 28 Jun 2016Created 17 May 2017 Rick Gleason - ricksgenealogy@gmail.com